Curcumin Inhibits The Reproductive Damage And Oxidative Stress Of Testicle Caused By Cyclophosphamide In Mice

Objective: To explore the detrimental effect on reproductive impairment and testicular oxidative stress in male albino mice induced by cyclophosphamide(CP) and to evaluate the protective effect of curcumin(CUR).Method: Forty healthy Kunming mice at the age of 7-8 weeks old weighing 30-35 grams were randomly divided into four groups, ten mice in each group. In normal control group mice were treated with saline by intraperitoneal injection,in solvent control group were treated with corn oil including ten percent dimethyl sulfoxide(DMSO) by intraperitoneal injection,in model group were treated with 50mg/kg CP by intraperitoneal injection,and in experiment group were treated with 50mg/kg CP plus 50mg/kg curcumin(curcumin 24 h prior to CP). All the mice were injected for 5 days continuously, and were killed within 24 h after the last injection. We weighed the body weight(BW), testis and epididymis, then calculated the relative weight of testis and epididymis. Serum was obtained to measure the level of testosterone(T).Collect sperm suspension of the right epididymis to conduct semen analysis.The right testis was taken out to detect malondiadehyde(MDA),and the antioxidative category including superoxide dismutase(SOD), catalase(CAT),glutatione(GSH) and glutatione peroxidase(GSH-PX-GSH).Results were expressed as mean ± standard deviation( ±s).Differences between groups were assessed by ANOVA using the SPSS13.0 software package for Windows.There was significance at P-values <0.05.Result: There were no difference in all indexes between normal control group and solvent control group(P>0.05).(1)Compared with normal control group and solvent control group, the BW, testis weight, epididymis weight and sperm count decreased, but dead sperm percentage,abnormal sperm percentage increased in the model group. Comparing with model group,all the indexes above were ameliorative in experiment group(P<0.05).The relative weight of testis in model group was lower than normal control group and solvent control group,but there was no difference in relative weight of epididymis(P>0.05).There were no difference in both relative weight of testis and relative weight of epididymis between experiment group and other groups(P>0.05).(2) Compared with normal control group and solvent control group,serum T concentration decreased in the model group(P<0.05). Comparing with model group, serum T concentration in experiment group obviously improved( P<0.05) by injecting curcumin preventatively.(3) Compared to normal control group and solvent control group,MDA concentration in the testis decreased(P<0.05),and the concentration of antioxidative substances in the testis such as SOD,GSH-PX,CAT,GSH,in the model group decreased(P<0.05).Comparing with model group, all the indexes above were ameliorative in experiment group(P<0.05).Conclusion: Curcumin can ameliorates CP-induced reproductive damage, and the protective mechanism may be associated with Inhibiting the oxidative stress and improving antioxidative substance.